Well my bus didn't get anything for Christmas! It's been a bad, bad bus this year! It's had 3 very expensive rear end differentials (think like $11,000) in it in less than a year! The first one was new to it when we bought the bus, the second we bought and drove to Greensboro, NC and picked up personally from Setra last year Thanksgiving weekend (lasted less than 25,000 miles before making horrible noise), and the last one Setra sent home with me as a warranty unit and started making noises at less than 5,000 miles. So it has been sitting since September until I can get the time & $ to have someone who knows rear ends figure out why it is going through them so fast! (unless they aren't properly set up from Setra when we get them and install them!)

One of the "new" buses the drivers share got a new b500 transmission (still in the shop until Monday!)And it used up all the Christmas $ for all the rest of the buses this year! BK

Hello: Well the bus did get substantial presents this year. New front rolling lobes from mohawk and a leveling system from Pete . The repairs to the front radius rod pin are complete so the front leg is a new weldment . The repair was time consuming because the pin required a jig to locate the pin properly before fabrication could begin. THe bus has new shocks and radius rod bushings. I do need to find 2 lower rear rods and replace the existing as they are wearing away. Check and adjust the brakes and grease and a coat of por 15 and paint on the beams completed the low end rehab. We will be going to Alaska next may so I wanted the coach to be in A-1 condition. Mounted the front tires this AM and now we need to pack the tools and the coach for Jacks rally. Hope to leave sunday PM or monday AM Regards and Happy new year to all and to all good night. happy bussin mike

Mine got a new pair of steer tires. The old ones went to the tags and the tags went to the history books - and I might add none too soon. It also got a new Guest 2611A battery tender to keep them warm on a cold winter's night. Tomorrow it gets replacement bulbs for the roof clearance/marker lights. Then there is a new curb side rub rail - yeah a blonde from East Stroudsburg changed lanes into the bus in New Jersey. My wife is a blonde so nothing else can be said on that score here. The big project is coming up before spring - that is to get the Galley/Bedroom OTR from the converter back in operation. I also plan on fixing my toad running lights - brake and turns work.

Geez, that way more than I got this Christmas. I guess I know the answer to the question, Who loves ya baby?

Hope everyone had a great day today and I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. Keep the wheels turning and the diesel burning and maybe I'll see some of you on down the road next year.

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Will Garner, JrSouthern Pines, NC1991 Prevost Conversion by Country Coach

This could have been me last night, as it is actually on the westbound lane of the highway by us, about 100' past where I turned around and headed back home. There were three other cars and a semi jammed into drifts in this same general vicinity.

They haven't cleared the snow yet on that lane, so my son snapped this picture as we were all on our way out to my mom's. I'm glad I turned around when I did, but you can see how hard it was to determine where the road was and where the ditch was. .. now imagine it with 60 mph blizzard conditions. IN OKLAHOMA??? Christy

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If chased by a bear, you don't need to run faster than the bear, just faster than your companion!

We gave our MC8, and ourselves, a trip to Quartzsite, Arizona from La Crescent, Minnesota this year. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a 4 day trip trying to stay ahead of the storms others have talked about. We encountered snow and fog between Des Moines, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri on Monday and the same conditions between Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico on Wednesday. Otherwise we stayed ahead of the worst weather. We had 25 degrees last night but it warmed up into the 50s today. The park we are at had a pot luck meal today with the park hosts supplying prime rib and pork tenderloin and as with every pot luck I've attended there was plenty of good food. We also got to meet some of the people staying here. We felt very welcome and thankful to be here.We had a couple of glitches with the bus and fortunately I was able to figure them out without calling for help. We stopped at Logan, New Mexico to buy a few groceries and parked on a slope, with the left side of the bus a good bit lower than the right. When we tried to restart the engine it would crank but not start. Having read on this board about the safety features incorporated into the DDEC II that we have I checked the oil and found it low since the dipstick is on the right side of the engine. I added 1/2 a gallon of oil and it started right up. Then yesterday morning when I started the engine the air pressure came up to about 60 psi and would rise no further no matter how fast I reved the engine. I have read here that tapping on the air governor may fix that problem and it did. I guess I will replace the air governor before we head back home if I can find one in the area.So reading the board for several years saved the day in both cases. Thanks to all that contribute to this board. We hope everyone had a great Christmas, Sam & Char Sperbeck

We gave our bus, two new drive axle seals, a brand spankin new air compressor (it was bad), and a new air dryer rebuild. I am gonna get it a new shock too (I shouldn't have to replace that shock, since we replaced it two years ago, but it is leaking).

Merry Christmas to all. We have been digging our way out of the snow today...lol

Where are you in Oklahoma? We live just east of Tulsa about 20 minutes and we got it pretty good last night as well. Lucky you were not the car in the picture. We saw allot of them today. Here is a picture just west of Claremore, OK on Route 66.

I can't even imagine the mess in OK with 14+ inches of snow. Here in Nebraska we are used to the conditions and have snow removal equipment. No offense but I have seen southern drivers on ice and snow and lets just say they are lacking in the experience department for those types of conditions. Hope everyone just stays in the house and waits until it gets better.

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Seven Heaven.... I pray a lot every time I head down the road!!Bad decisions make good stories.

We're in Mustang, a suburb on the very southwest corner of Oklahoma City.

I actually was going to try to drive the mile west and a mile south to get my Mom and bring her back to our place, and based on the condition of our road, which is a north/south, I felt I could make it ok. We were snow covered, icy, but passable. I dropped Larry up at the office to get his four wheel drive pickup as a backup in case I got in trouble, I dressed extremely warmly with head, hand and foot protection, tried to be prepared as much as possible.

With the Jeep in four wheel low, I had no problem traversing the road, but the problem was when I got about 1/4 mile west, I came up onto the higher elevation of that roadway, and I was immediately enveloped in a total whiteout. The wind and snow were blowing so strong, that I was down to a crawl, forced onto the eastbound lane, and I could only get a partial glimpse of the road every few minutes. I was forced to get out of the car and clear my windshield and side window, and to determine where I was on the road.

I didn't know that they had closed down the highway, so I was really fearful of turning the car around, as a white jeep, crossways in the road, during a whiteout, well, even a slow moving vehcile surely would broadside me before they saw me. Plus, since there was only one passable lane, it was a foot forward, a foot back, a foot forward, a foot back, get out and see where the edge of the road was, trying to get turned around without getting wheels into a drift or off the edge of the pavement.

When I finally did get turned around, I couldn't open the drivers door anymore to see the road, because it would immediately fill the car with a swirling snow storm, so I repeatedly would get out and see where the road was and how I was positioned, because I knew if I got off the edge or even too far into a drift, things would get really hairy. By now, it ws dark, and I just couldn't believe this was Oklahoma. . it felt like I was in the farthest reaches of the world.

Yesterday, we were able to get out to Mother's and dig her out. They had a front end loader on the highway and he was piling snow 15' or more high on the sides of the road, and in that one mile stretch I had tried to traverse, he had exposed at least three or four cars and one semi tractor that had evidently driven into the drifts and gotten stranded. At least two of the cars were totally buried in the snow. I grew up in MN, lived in Nebraska too, started sneaking my car out when I was 15 to do donuts and "play" on the snowy streets and lake, and I lived out in the country up there more than I ever lived in town, so I've been in some pretty wicked weather and on some rough roads, but I've never seen anything like this.

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If chased by a bear, you don't need to run faster than the bear, just faster than your companion!

I'm just glad that for the most part, everyone came thru it ok, like I said in a past thread, busnuts are probably the best prepared of anyone to survive a session of bad weather, with the self contained idea of a bus, for many these storms are more of an inconvience unless a person has to venture out into them, then they can become life threatening. Cranky people like me have a hard to making friends and I really don't want to loose any of the few I have, so be careful.